Enter Rest Time
by Katie237
Summary: 4x15 Enter Flashtime missing scene after Barry managed to trick the Speedforce's lightnings into following him in order to stop the bomb and before the scene at S.T.A.R. where Barry is resting. Mostly from from Joe's POV


**A/N: Welcome to my new oneshot/missing scene for Enter Flashtime, mostly because I w** **as having a *huge* writer block for Long way Home (DX DX) and I was getting frustrated, so I ended up instead writing other stuff that I had in my mind. Considering they cut out some good hurt!Barry out of the episode, you shouldn't be surprise I wrote this ahah. Plus, I think this season need more Barry/Joe moments.**

 **Sorry for the little grammar mistakes here and there. I wrote this piece for fun and to get it out of my head, so it hadn't been double check by my Beta and for those who don't already know; english isn't my first language.**

 **Enjoy!**

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What the hell happened? It was with confusion all over his face and filling his mind that Joe put himself in a seated position on the ground. He didn't even remember being knocked over. Merely a couple of seconds ago, more or less, he was firing at the criminals while trying to assist Team Flash and then, in the next moment, there he was in this new situation. Looking to his right, he could see Cisco and Frost also sitting back up, just like everyone else in the room. And...wait was that Jay Garrick next to them? There has to be quite the story that he missed.

Turning his head around, Joe's heart skipped a beat the instant he spotted the red suit laying still on the concrete. Still as in completely immobile. Totally unmoving, the red figure wasn't trying to seat like the rest of them. A cold shiver passed down his spine. Barry? Joe wanted to scream the name at the top of his lungs, but couldn't, not without revealing the identity of the masked speedster.

"Flash?...Flash!" He shouted instead, rushing up and sprinting toward the hero before dropping to his knees while his heart was sinking a little more with each new passing second of the hero staying completely silent.

'oh thank God' he thought when his hand landed on his foster son and he felt the chest moving ever so slightly under his palm. He was breathing, Barry was alive! It wasn't going to be a repeat of the bee episode where Barry literally died right in front of him. The images of this moment never completely left the detective's mind and they had been assaulting his memories at full speed since the moment he just spotted Barry's form on the ground.

"Flash?" He softly asked again before getting finally rewarded when he saw heavy eyelids struggling to open and only succeeding halfway. The glance that followed quickly found the detective.

"Are we dead?" Finally answered a weak voice.

"No," reassured Joe, frowning in confusion. The poor kid looked completely out of it. What could've happened in the last few seconds to result to that?

"That's good," said back Barry as his eyelids were already closing again which caused Joe's worry to increase again. If it wasn't enough, the racing heart pumping way too fast under his palm wasn't reassuring either.

Instinctively, protectively, Joe's hand approached the hero's head and before his fingers even reached the skin, he gasped and swiftly retracted his hand as he felt the heat radiating from it.

"My god you're burning up!" He anxiously exclaimed.

" How is he?" Suddenly inquire an approaching voice before kneeling on the other side of the fallen hero, forcing Joe to look up one second to make eye contact with Cisco for half a second and, damn, Vibe was looking just as alarmed as he was.

"I don't...What the hell happened?" The detective barely took the time to glance at the person next to Cisco, quickly spotting Frost and...wait. Garrick? He somehow forgot about the man's presence just as fast as he saw him moments earlier, "Jay? What are you doing here?"

Not wasting time waiting for an answer, Joe was already back at visually scanning his son's body for any sign of injuries. While Barry's eyes were closed again, his chest was still rising and descending and there wasn't an immediate sign of gushing wound or any hole in the suit, all good signs. From the couple of enigmatic words Joe was able to get out of him, he could tell the hero sounded more overly exhausted and worn out than injured, which was pretty good too.

"He didn't take you in Flashtime?" Asked Cisco, while Jay was pushing his fingers under the cowl and pressing them against the younger speedster's artery. Whatever he found out had the older speedster quickly frowning.

"Flash...what?" Exclaimed Joe, barely controlling his anguish in his voice.

Seconds ago Flash and his team managed to retake control of the situation, so how did Barry ended up on the floor near an exploded container?

Cisco shared a quick look with Frost who nodded, still clearly shaken up by the events, she understood how close they came to the ultimate disaster.

"It's a long story, detective-" intervened Jay Garrick, "but right now we need to get Flash back to your lab. His pulse is really weak and it's racing. Even I can barely feel it."

If that sentence wasn't enough to get Joe's worry skyrocketing, the next observation, that confirmed what he was already feeling and fearing under his palms. sure succeeded in that:

"He's struggling to breath." Added Frost who had her eyes glued to Barry's chest. A quick gasp emanating from the hero's mouth confirmed it.

"Let's move people!" Urgently said Cisco, raising his arm and opening one more, and hopefully one last for this seemingly endless day, breach, "Frost we'll nee-"

No need to complete that sentence as the Meta's hair were slowly turning back from white to brown. The Ice Queen was returning to sleep and allowing her host to take back the control. Surprisingly, considering the situation they found themselves in, Caitlin didn't seem too out of it when she woke up and took in her surroundings. Quite the contrary, the instant she was back, she rushed to help gather Barry's prone form in order to get him into the breach.

It was killing Joe to no jump in after the team, but he had officers to check on and he needed to make sure the situation was completely under control now.

"I'll join you as soon as I can, I just-"

"We'll take care of him," confirmed Cisco as Caitlin, Jay and Barry had already disappeared, before jumping after them.

It was running, literally running, that Joe came back in the cortex and into the medical bay with his eyes darting all around 'til he finally found the still and shirtless form of his son laying on the medical bed. Medical equipment were hooked to his chest and an oxygen mask was secured on his mouth and nose while Caitlin was finishing to take his blood pressure around his arm.

"Iris briefed me over the phone on what happened, how is he?"

Barry's eyes were still tightly closed, the oxygen mask was getting foggier with every slow breath and the monitors were displaying a too fast heartbeat, but he visually looked slightly better. Barry's skin wasn't all red and drenched anymore and his temperature reading was definitely closer to normal range than what it was in the warehouse. Harry was standing in the entrance of the room with his back against the door while Iris and Cisco were both standing not too far from the main medical bed. In the back of the room, both Jesse and Jay were slumped in chairs, both looking completely worn out, but not nearly as much as the young speedster on the bed.

"He reached an extreme level of exhaustion." Announced Caitlin, while taking a look at the results of her patient's blood pressure before making sure the IV was still well in place and firmly tapped on the man's hand. Why wouldn't it be? Barry hadn't moved a single inch since arriving and had yet to make a single sound, he didn't even protested when his friends were stripping him out of his constricted suit.

Slowly advancing, yet respectfully staying out of the way to allow Caitlin to work, Joe asked: "What does it mean, exactly?"

"If he had continued to push himself just just a couple of extra moments, he could've triggered a heart attack from overexertion or his lungs could've collapsed. His left lung is struggling to function normally at the moment, that's why he was having trouble breathing at the scene, but, I've been giving him oxygen and it's taking off some pressure of it. "

For some reason, Joe always felt worse after asking medical details to the doctor. Sometimes, ignorance really was a bliss; "when is he going to wake up?"

Before answering, Caitlin looked down another time at her patient, checking his vitals before answering with a confident smile:"Might take a few hours, but he's on the mend. he's strong."

Clearly relieved, Iris exhaled loudly and straightened herself to put back her weight equally on her two feet before coming closer to the bed and to her dad, clearly fighting mixed feelings in her mind: "He looked and felt so awful when he took me into Flashtime...when I saw him so still in the surveillance video, I thought he was... " she had to stop herself in mid-sentence as her shaking lips were threatening her steady voice. Instead of continuing, she slowly reached out to touch the man's arm.

Cisco nodded as well. His eyes closed themselves as if he was trying to chase that image away. That same thought crossed his mind too when he came back to his senses to see his friend lying so still and vulnerable on the concrete. So many scenarios jumped into his mind at that moment as he was trying to figure out what Barry could've done to stop an already detonated nuclear explosion. But if Caitlin said he was going to be ok, then he was going to be ok.

Taking off his toque, Joe was about to get take a seat next to his son's bedside, 'til his ringtone disturbed the disturbingly quiet atmosphere. Fidgeting the device out of his pocket, with the clear intention to dismiss the call, he sighed when he saw who was calling; Singh. His boss was probably wondering why he ran away on this active case.

 _'Thanks'_ he gratefully mouthed to the doctor before walking out of the room.

 *****FLASHFLASHFLASH*****

By the time Joe came back, his boy was tremendously looking better. Indeed, his face wasn't as red as before and the oxygen mask had been removed, just like most of the medical equipment on his bare chest. The only thing still in place was the IV in Barry's hand that was still connected to whatever was in the medical bag, a mostly empty bag now. In fact, Caitlin was checking it at the moment, working in silence as she took it off and put it on the impressive pile of empty bags on the desk. The speedster's system sure was in dire need of some nutriments. The doctor was so deeply concentrated on her task that she didn't even notice the man entering the room as she was moving back to her patient and, after a moment of consideration, slowly took the IV out of her patient's hand. The corner of her lips twitched into a small smile when her patient grimaced at the sensation of the needle coming out, he was considerably more responsive to the outside stimulus now, which really was a good sign.

Joe couldn't help but smile too at the view; "I see he's doing better," he commented, causing Caitlin to swiftly turn around, hand on her chest, before taking a deep breathe when she spotted who just talk to her. Good thing Joe waited for the doctor to finish with what she was doing before speaking up or the needle might've come out the wrong way out of Barry's hand.

"You scared me, how long have you been standing here?"

"Just a couple of seconds," he assured, "how is he?" he instantly added, looking down and approaching the bed.

"Still on the mend, but way better, thanks to his fast metabolism. He still gonna need a lot of rest, so will Jay and Jesse." Seeing the detective looking around, she quickly added ; "they're both resting in the guest quarters on the lower floors, Iris just went to see if they needed anything."

Her attention was brought back to her patient as his whole body trembled under the cold air flow suddenly passing in the room, "you mind helping me get him in his sweatshirt? He would be more comfortable."

Joe smiled, more than happy to finally do something useful.

Dressing and undressing an unconscious person, especially an all grown-up man wasn't as easy as movie wanted people to believe. Barry's arms were completely uncooperative, just like a doll, when his friend and foster dad tried to put them into the sleeves. But, no matter how complicated it was getting, Joe would never complain, happy to finally get the chance to help in taking care of his boy.

Barry might now be a strong hero, a grown-up man and a caring husband, but, for Joe, he would always be his boy. A part of the speedster would always be the little child Joe took under his wing and into his house when he was eleven. As long as there would be a breathe left in him, Joe knew he would always be there to take him of the young man every time Barry would stumble and fall.

Right now, every second he had 'til his boss would send him what the officers recover at Veronica Dale's place was going to be spent right here, waiting for Barry to finally open his eyes and join them.

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 **A/N: Hope you enjoyed Barry's suffering ;) leave a comment**

 **And, side note, I do have friday's Long Way Home chapter (Chap.13) ready and I will post it in two days, but considering how I'm having trouble finishing the next one, it's probably gonna be a break on the 13th before posting the 14th chapter on April 20th. I need to figure out a couple of things out.**


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